Friday, November 4, 2011

TV Split-Shift At TMS Friday

The two remaining NASCAR TV partners at this time of the season, ESPN and SPEED, will split the Friday on-track action from the Texas Motor Speedway. ESPN2 will open the day with Nationwide Series practice at 11:30AM ET and then follow it with the Sprint Cup Series practice session at 1PM.

Marty Reid is finishing out this season as the voice of the Nationwide Series telecasts. He is up first with Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree for the early session. Allen Bestwick then comes along with Jarrett and Petree for the Cup practice.

ESPN has the usual cast of characters on pit road. Jamie Little, Dr. Jerry Punch, Dave Burns and Vince Welch will handle the reporting duties. Tim Brewer and his car parts are over in the Tech Garage.

The ESPN day ends with NASCAR Now on ESPN2 at 2:30PM. Former TNT reporter and now ESPN anchor Lindsay Czarniak will host the show. Ricky Craven is the in-studio analyst this weekend while Marty Smith and Shannon Spake will report from TMS.

John Roberts picks up the hosting duties as SPEED begins the night shift with a 4PM version of NASCAR Live. Jeff Hammond will be alongside Roberts while Randy Pemberton will report from the garage area.

SPEED's two on-track sessions are at 4:30 and 6:30PM ET. Hermie Sadler joins Larry McReynolds and Steve Byrnes to call the Sprint Cup Series practice up first. Phil Parsons then stops by for the Nationwide Series session up next with Byrnes and McReynolds. Wendy Venturini and Bob Dillner will handle the reporting for both telecasts.

7:30PM starts the Camping World Trucks telecast with Krista Voda hosting the pre-race show. Rick Allen then comes along for the live race at 8PM with Parsons and Michael Waltrip along for the ride. Hermie Sadler and Ray Dunlap are the reporters.

The TV night ends with the "new look" version of Trackside. Rutledge Wood has transitioned over into the host role. He is joined on the stage by Kyle Petty and Jeff Hammond. Newcomer Marianela Pereyra is the reporter. Fans have very strong opinions about the recent changes to this classic TV series.

We will live blog the truck race, but please feel free to offer your TV-related comments right here on any of the Friday telecasts. We will also use this post to pass along any breaking news, as NASCAR silly season is in full swing and many other current and former NASCAR personalities are in the news this week. Thanks for stopping by.

Looking forward to all coverage, but Trackside. The Rutledge and Marianela combo is not working for this NASCAR fan. Speed needs to rethink their strategy regarding this show. Thanks for the schedule information JD.

Sweet cant wait for Friday action! Oh and JD what happened to the article you were going to write about the bad tv coverage still getting good ratings? You mentioned how your next post would be about that but never saw it???

RW: "I started with SPEED in February of '05 as the MC and DJ at the SPEED stage. It was a position through the marketing department and believe it or not, I actually saw the job listing on Craigslist. When I started, I didn't know much about NASCAR but I fell in love with it quickly. It's hard to believe I've been on the road with NASCAR that long, but it has flown by."

Dreams can come true ... It can happen to you....

In the meantime while I wait I am going to Tuscaloosa for this year's verion of "The Game of the Century"

Sophia... JD has the handy dandy side bar with all the NASCAR program listings....you can usually check Fridays to see when NASCAR Performance is on. And thank you, JD for keeping it up there, I use it all the time. I know there are other sites out there where you can find it also. I think we have to remember that SPEED is a sports network that does carry live programming (not enough...) so it makes the scheduling require a bit more flexibility. That doesn't bother me.

I sometimes turn on Trackside, but usually when I am doing other tasks. I like Rutledge, I like Kyle...heck, I see nothing wrong with Marianela. But the show itself is awful. Last week they were *carving pumpkins*. Oy vey....

But I would also like to mention, who at SPEED is trying to turn Byrnes into a comedian on Racehub. The goofy weather outfits; who is making him do this schtick? I thought Spencer was the comic relief (who can be alternately funny & terribly unfunny in the same segment.)

I really enjoy Rutledge & Kyle however I don't watch because of all those people with their stupid signs in the background. As for Marianela I can't stand her. I'm also curious about Reut and his prospects for 2012.

Trackside is dead to me. I wont watch it. I like some goofyness mixed in with great interviews. New show gives you none of that. Its Kyle and Rut being crazy and some woman in a bunker somewhere reading tweets for no reason. Remind me not to watch.

No Trackside for me! Haven't watched for some time now. Like everything else, someone has a 'better idea' and ends up ruining a good thing. Ratings will drop and it will be canceled like all the other past good shows we used to watch.

Here we are at years end again and one part of me wants the racing season to hurry up and end. Silly season just messes everything up for the 'core' fan in me. In the old days (showing my age) you could buy that jacket and know that next year, your driver would be there with the same sponsor, the same car number, same CC. But not now.

NASCAR has evolved to a series of change. Announcers, drivers, shows, sponsors, it's an never ending whirlwind of change. Some good, some bad.

Steve L, I know what you mean about the discontinuity on who's driving where, for what make and sponsor. I have stopped buying souvenirs for the most part - I stick with either something from the track esp if I haven't been there before or something from Chevy racing.

there used to be a sports store near here with a lot of NASCAR stuff...owner told me once the sponsor-changing stuff just killed his business. Other sports keep their logos, for the most part. Even Jeff Gordon's rainbow is gone....my friend has not yet bought a 'Drive to End Hunger' shirt.

As others have mentioned, I regret the loss of the long term sponsor affiliations. In the days of the "Tide Ride", you could identify the car without it being mentioned by an announcer. As long as it showed up in a camera shot, you could probably pick it out and know how the driver was doing. The special paint schemes used today also may have a purpose, but it makes it more difficult to identify a car. Combine that with rotating sponsors and the TV viewer has a tough job to identify and follow a car.

You would think that NASCAR and its TV broadcasters would be careful to make sure that all of the primary sponsors got some air time to justify their continued support. Instead, the networks and NASCAR seem determined to do just the opposite. NASCAR's chase results in focus on a few teams while ignoring the rest. And ESPN's hypertight camera coverage results in long periods of focus on a single car. That concentration not only angers fans who want to watch a race, it prevents air time to all the other primary sponsors.

I think that the concentration on a few cars and sponsors is slowly killing the economic foundation of the sport. When top tier teams like Roush and Childress have to eliminate a team because of lack of sponsorship, something is seriously wrong.

I used to think that ESPN was merely arrogant and stupid. That was sufficient reason to explain their personnel choices along with the producer and director decisions. After last week's failure to mention a serious injury to a crewman because he was not on a significant team, I am forced to conclude that ESPN is also callous and evil. They have had five years to relearn how to understand the fans and broadcast a race, and this is the best they can do?

I hope ESPN is not any part of the next NASCAR TV contract. If they go, I will celebrate their departure. I don't know how anybody else can be any worse.

MW said he could not get in touch with reutimann Tuesday Because he was on a plane. I mean really?? If he cared at all for reutimann he could have delayed his announcement until he could talk to reutimann in person.

Nascar.com says PitCommand and the radio broadcast are available for today's cup qualifying. I've tried several times to fire up both applications to no avail. A blank page for PitCommand and nothing when I click on the arrow to start the radio broadcast. I'm a paying customer for PitCommand.

JD, can you please wake up those yahoos at Turner and find out what the problem is? Thanks.

During Sprint Cup Qualifying, they came back from break and showed a Jimmie Johnson highlight reel then went back live and they were halfway through Jeff Gordon's qualifying run. And not only that but they didnt even mention Jimmie after the promo thing. That didnt make no sense. Especially since Qualifying is taped so each car can get on TV, and they ignore Jeff for Jimmie. If it was JJ Yeley or someone I wouldnt care, but Jeff has a ton of fans. They deserved to see his whole run. Just didnt make sense to me.

Sorry to hear about Jeff not being shown but as a Tony Stewart fan we've dealt with stuff like that quite often. You don't get used to it. Just imagine if you were a fan of some top 20 driver as opposed to a top 10 driver. You'd be lucky to see your guy on tv.